Everything seemed to get easier after that. The board was still a threat in the background that would probably never go away until all the members were replaced, but the crisis was averted for the moment.

And it wasn't like the board could really complain when Tony was in the middle of a massive inventing spree. Steve had never seen Tony so inspired. The genius was spending four or five hours down in the lab almost every day and he always resurfaced in high spirits.

But Tony was still avoiding the business side of running his company. Pepper finally had to show up to the Tower, take Stephy out of her play pen and inform Tony he wasn't going to see the baby until he finished looking over all the paperwork piling up in his office.

With that motivation, Tony managed to get through all his paperwork in a record-breaking two hours. Steve was sure Tony hadn't read any of the papers he was supposed to sign, but he was pretty sure Tony didn't usually read them anyway.

Tony swept into the den, interrupting the story Pepper was reading to the baby. "Stephy! Did you miss me, darling? Probably not. Probably too busy having fun with Auntie Pepper. Little traitor."

But he softened when Stephy reached for him.

"Oh, honey," Tony said reverently. He held the baby tightly against his chest and gently rocked her. "Mommy missed you so much."

Pepper smiled as she rose from the couch. "I like this. Finally have some leverage you'll actually respond to."

Tony stuck out his tongue. "Come on, Stephy. You've spent enough time in evil Auntie Pepper's company for one day. Don't want her being a bad influence on you."

Steve chuckled as Tony wandered out of the room, whispering furtively to the baby about all the horrible abuse Pepper had put him through. "Thanks for coming, Pepper. We're all glad to have you visit. Even if Tony's too proud to admit it."

"Any time. She's a little angel. And the rest of you are pretty good company, too. Tony's a lucky man to have met you all." She brushed off her slacks. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to running Tony's company for him."

Steve felt a little sorry for her. She was the only one who had a really set schedule. The team pretty much did what they felt like when they felt like it until they had to deal with a villain attack or a press conference. But they didn't have anything scheduled in the next few weeks. Except for Clint's birthday, of course.

It fell on Bruce's week to cook, but Tony begged to do all the party planning. Steve was pretty sure Tony was going to overdo things again because he knew how quickly a small celebration could turn into a giant party when Tony was excited about it.

But luckily, Tony had managed to invite only a handful of people even though he was had enough food prepared for an entire army. Coulson had been invited, along with a few of Clint's friends from SHIELD, Pepper, Jane, and Darcy. All people Steve was comfortable with.

Tony spent half of the party making rounds with the baby so everyone could coo over her cuteness and the other half pushing plates of food into people's hands. Everyone had been impressed with Tony's cooking, even Coulson, and Tony had basked and preened under their praise.

"You must spend all your time in the kitchen these days," Coulson said as he dipped another chip into Tony's guacamole. "Perfecting your recipes."

"Nah," Tony said dismissively. "This is easy stuff." But he still looked pleased by the praise. "I'm actually spending most of my time down in the lab. I've been working on something I want to show you."

Coulson must have seen something in Tony's expression, because he brushed off his hands and nodded. "Lead the way."

Tony beamed and squeezed Steve's shoulder. "Keep an eye on the grill for me while I'm gone. Thanks, babe."

Grills, as it turned out. But somehow he managed.

Tony inspected the meat and gave Steve's work a thumb's up. "You did great. The tequila-lime chicken will be perfect." He bumped Steve with his hip. "Now go get yourself a drink. I can handle it from here."

Of course he could. Tony was already sliding back into his role as cook, making it all look so easy.

Steve got himself a drink and started mingling with the party guests. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, especially Clint.

After devouring half a plate of steak nachos and a case of beer, Clint stumbled into the den and fell back onto the couch. "Alright, it's time for some fucking presents," he announced. He reached for the first present in the stack and started clumsily tearing at the paper.

True to his word, Tony really had gotten Clint a whole collection of Kevin Bacon movies. But he had also made him a new batch of arrows, so Clint didn't seem to mind the joke. Or maybe he was just too drunk to get it.

"Sweet arrows, man," Clint said. He gestured to the vase on the end table. "Who wants to watch me shoot this fucking pineapple off the table?"

"No exploding arrows indoors," Tony said firmly. He eased the arrows out of Clint's hands and shoved Bruce's present into his lap.

They were lucky Clint was so easily distracted. And they were even luckier when Clint passed out after another beer.

"I would have thought Barton could hold his liquor after all these years," Coulson said as he helped Steve carry Clint up to his room.

"So, he was always like this?"

Coulson nodded. "Natasha once told me her grandmother could outdrink him."

It was probably bad form to be sitting in Clint's bedroom, listening to all of Coulson's stories about Clint's wild, younger days while the man was passed out. But, well, Steve wasn't always the nice guy everyone thought he was.

When they made it back downstairs, most of the SHIELD agents were just as drunk as Clint was. Agent Schroder was actually sprawled out across the kitchen table, arguing with Tony about the best restaurants in the city. And two of the agents were trying to stab each other with a pair of chopsticks. Coulson just shook his head and unarmed the two with some complicated move that left them both sitting in their chairs looking confused.

"It's time for us to go," Coulson said. "Thor, if you would?"

"Certainly," Thor said. He threw one of the agents over each shoulder and carried them out to the car.

Coulson began rounding up the rest of the agents because he was apparently the designated driver for all of them.

"It's probably time for us to go, too," Jane said. "Tell Clint we enjoyed the party."

"But it's only midnight," Darcy protested. "The party's just getting started." She lifted her glass above her head and started swaying to the music.

"Which means we've been here for five hours already," Jane said firmly. "Time to go home."

Midnight already? Wow, Steve must have talked with Coulson for a lot longer than he had thought. But, to be fair, Clint had a long history of crazy adventures so he shouldn't have been surprised.

Steve helped Tony with the clean-up and then dragged him off to bed. Although Tony would never admit it, he knew how exhausted the genius was keeping everyone happy and entertained.

Tony was up early with Steve the next morning for their usual walk and instead of tech talk, all Tony wanted to do was start planning Steve's birthday. "Coming up in less than a month," he said. "We should start working on it now. Because I know everyone's going to want to come. Clint's kind of an acquired taste, but nobody will want to miss out on your party."

Steve sighed. "I don't want a big party, Tony. Just you and the rest of the guys. No planning needed."

"But we have to do something special," Tony protested, looking at Steve like he had grown an extra head.

Steve squeezed Tony's shoulder. "It will be special. You can cook us all something nice and we'll have cake and ice cream, maybe watch a movie together."

"But that's normal stuff," Tony complained. "It's your birthday. There should be ribbons and sparklers and fireworks."

"Oh, there'll be fireworks alright," Steve said. He dragged his gaze over Tony's body.

Tony giggled. "Not in front of the baby," he said. He dropped his voice down to a whisper. "But if that's the way you want to celebrate your big day, I am not going to say no. Not at all."

Steve draped an arm over Tony's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Whatever happens, my birthday will still be special because you'll be there."

Back at the Tower, Tony started whipping up a batch of pancakes, pausing every so often to feed Stephy a spoonful of mango applesauce.

Clint wandered in right when they were done eating, looking pale and haggard. "Best birthday ever," he said, offering Tony a thumb's up and an attempt at a smile, although he looked more nauseous than happy.

Tony patted Clint's shoulder and slid a glass of water and a bottle of Tylenol across the counter. "I'll make you something gross and greasy. Always works for me when I feel as shitty as you do."

"No one has ever felt as shitty as I do," Clint said. But he sank into a chair and downed the water.

Tony scooped the baby out of her high chair. "Stephy and I are going to spend a little time down in the lab. Try not to throw up on anything important."

Steve left Tony alone for a couple hours and concentrated on finishing up his paintings for Tony's Fourth of July fundraiser. They had been half-done for weeks, just waiting for him to find the inspiration to continue. But now he found the motivation to finish. A quiet neighborhood at night, two lovers sitting on a rooftop watching the stars. A family having a picnic in a bright green meadow while curious rabbits watch from a distance. Small children lined up to go down a bright yellow slide. They weren't exactly patriotic images, but they represented all the good things about the country. And perhaps somebody else at the auction would be thinking the way Steve did, that this was what the army was fighting to protect.

It was just about lunch time when he finished, so he washed up and made himself a club sandwich and pastrami on rye for Tony.

He didn't see Tony at first. There was a tangle of wires across all of Tony's work surfaces and microchips everywhere. But then he caught a glimpse of Tony's sneakers sticking out behind one of the benches. It turned out Tony was actually on the floor, working with a tangled mass of wires the size of a tumbleweed and a volt meter.

Steve crouched down beside him and raised an eyebrow at the scope of the project. "You going to be at this for awhile?"

"Oh, no. Just fixing a wiring issue on the suit." Tony pushed one batch of wires to the side and began untangling a second mass.

"Again?"

"What?" Tony asked distractedly.

"Didn't you fix that wiring issue a couple weeks ago?"

Tony paused. "Oh," he said. "It's, uh, a different wiring issue."

Steve's eyes narrowed. "What are you really working on?"

"Nothing," Tony said quickly.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm a great liar. How else do you think I've managed to keep those jerks on the board happy?"

Steve narrowed his eyes. "You didn't let Clint talk you into making something to electrocute the board, did you?"

Tony barked out a laugh. "No, nothing like that."

Steve cupped Tony's face in his hand and stroked a thumb over his cheek. "Promise me that you're using your powers for good. I'd hate to see you waste that great brain of yours on revenge."

"It's a good thing," Tony promised. "Something I should have thought about a long time ago. But I was always too focused on other things. Weapons when I should have been working on armor." He shook his head sadly.

"Hey," Steve said. "Don't beat yourself up about it. You never would have come up with the idea if you hadn't gone through what you did in Afghanistan." He tapped Tony's chest. "How would you have been able to make your reactor the power source without, you know, getting the reactor? I hate that you had to go through all that, but sometimes we come out of bad situations better than we went in."

Tony's mouth curled into a smile. "Don't I know it."

"Now, do you want to tell me what you're really working on?"

"Can't. Top secret. For now, anyway. But you'll probably see it in action soon enough."

Steve sighed. "Just tell me you didn't make any dangerous upgrades to your suit. Like putting in flaming jet-skis or something."

Tony's brightened. "Now that's an idea."

"Tony, no."

"Too late." Tony scrambled up from the floor and reached for one of his computer. "Jarvis, make a note for later. I can't believe I never thought of something so awesome."

Steve sighed. "Tony."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Too dangerous." Tony waved his volt meter dismissively. "Hey, take the baby up for lunch, would you? Mommy's going to get his science on."

"Tony," Steve said exasperatedly.

"For science!" Tony said. He stuffed half his sandwich into his mouth and then scurried off into a corner of the lab.

Steve shook his head and scooped the baby out of her playpen. "Mommy's a little crazy," he said. "Best to leave him in peace when he's like this."

Stephy burbled contentedly and stuffed her fist into her mouth.

"Right," Steve said. "Lunch."

Stephy ate most of the mashed bananas Steve gave her for lunch. Or more truthfully, the bowl of mashed bananas was empty and both Steve and Stephy were smeared with goop. Steve probably should have known better than to leave the bowl close enough for Stephy to stick her hands in it.

"You are a mess," Steve said. "And not even a hot mess like your mother. Just a mess." He pressed a kiss to her slimy cheek. "You're lucky you're so cute."

"Bah," Stephy said, reaching up to smear more banana into his hair.

Steve grimaced. How did this kind of thing never happen when Tony was feeding her?

Tony remained down in the lab for the rest of the afternoon and he didn't come up for dinner, either. And when Steve went down to check up on him, the lab doors remained firmly shut.

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers," Jarvis said. "It is not advisable for you to enter the lab at this time."

Steve cursed under his breath. Why oh why had he put the idea for something so ridiculously, stupidly dangerous in Tony's head?

"Alright," he said finally. "Tell him there's leftovers in the fridge."

Steve had had enough when Tony hadn't resurfaced by midnight. "Jarvis, can you tell Tony those flaming jet skis can really wait until morning?" They could probably wait forever as far as Steve concerned.

"That is not Sir's current project," Jarvis responded immediately.

That was good to hear. "Well, then, tell him to finish up whatever he's working on and come to bed."

"I'm afraid not, Captain Rogers. Sir insists he has important work to do and it cannot wait."

Steve crawled into bed, knowing it would be next to impossible to get any sleep with Tony holed up in the lab. He couldn't help but worry about him. Tony hadn't pulled an all-nighter in months. Maybe he had just gotten caught up in something fun and exciting, but Steve hadn't liked the way Tony was lying to him and being secretive. Tony was usually so excited to share his ideas that it was hard to stop him from talking about whatever he was working on.

When he rolled out of bed the next morning, he had maybe gotten two hours of sleep, and they had mostly been nightmares. He camped out in front of Tony's lab and resolved that he wasn't going to leave until Tony came out.

He didn't have long to wait because Tony emerged at the hour they normally took the baby out, looking more drained and haggard than Clint had. And what was worse was the defeated set to his face, the dull look in his eyes. Tony had almost tripped over him, staggering out of the lab without really seeing anything.

Steve got up and steadied Tony against his chest. "Hey, what happened in there? Are you okay?"

Tony blinked a few times, his vision focusing. "Oh. Steve. Hey, babe. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

Steve sucked in a breath at the scorch marks across Tony's neck. "Oh, honey. You're not trying to burn off your gland, are you?"

Removal of the omega gland was said to be one of the most painful experiences a person could go through, even more painful than having one's dick sliced off. Still, there had been omegas who had done it back in Steve's day. Most of them had been mentally ill, convinced they were clawing a tumor off their necks or some sort of alien device the government was using to spy on them. But there were also omegas who had been suffering horrible abuse and saw no other way out.

Tony blinked and put a hand up to his neck. "Oh," he said. "Didn't realize the explosion had been that bad."

"Explosion?" Steve sputtered. Why hadn't Jarvis notified him?

"Minor explosion," Tony said confidently and then frowned, rubbing at his neck again. "Maybe."

Steve squeezed Tony into a hug. "Honey, don't do this to me, please."

"I'm fine," Tony repeated. He guided Steve's hand to his gland. "See?" he said, his voice going a little higher, a little nervous around the edges. "Still there."

Steve stroked his thumb over the gland. Tony was trembling beneath him and-ow. He pulled his hand back and frowned at it. Static shock? How had that happened?

Tony clutched at the front of Steve's shirt and made a tiny whimpering sound.

Steve stroked his back soothingly. "You did so good. So good. I'll get you some ice cream. Or maybe some leftover pancakes. How does that sound?"

"Fantastic," Tony said, his smile still a little shaky.

"I'll even make some eggs and bacon if you promise me not to cause any more explosions today."

"No promises," Tony murmured.

"Babe. No project is worth you almost getting killed for."

"It is," Tony said faintly. "Damn is it ever."

"At least tell me what you're doing so I don't have to worry about you."

"I can't." Tony avoided his eyes. "But you'll see soon enough."